Ice and Fire
by Danny Barefoot
Summary: Endings in fire and ice; the crew of the Deucalion after Inaho's death. 'Emperor of Mars' AU spinoff, not necessary to have read original story
1. Zombietown

A/N: In the 'Emperor of Mars' AU, Inaho was killed by Slaine at Novosibirisk. Dr Troyard is still alive. Slaine saves the Princess with his father's help rather than Saaazbaum's, becoming a Versian Duke and Asseylum's fiancee. Asseylum forces an armistice with the UFE, but the Versians have already conquered most of the world.

* * *

 _"Harklight? Could you do something, for me?"_

 _"Your Highness?"_

 _"When I was on Earth during the war, I met many Terrans who were kind to me. They protected me. No. We were friends. Now the war is over, could you please seek them out?"_

 _"Certainly, Highness. And should I succeed in locating them?"_

 _"Well, do find out if they're in any kind of trouble. I've repaid their kindness very poorly…nothing in my power would be enough. Except to ask their forgiveness."_

 _"Princess, you saved them!" Her little handmaiden chirped, "They ought to be jolly grateful!"_

 _In the centre of her splendid garden of flowers, Asseylum rested her brow upon her hand. Took a sip from a cold drink. Harklight silently reflected that the Terrans left struggling for life in the ruins of Earth would surely choose that jug of clean water before an apology._

 _"One more thing, Harklight," Asseylum flashed the aide a smile he would remember every time he saw a beautiful woman for the rest of his life, "Please don't tell Slaine or his father about this."_

 _-0-_

 _"Her Highness asked such a thing of you, did she?" With a tiny, bitter smile, Slaine looked aside. Harklight waited at ease before his desk. "Didn't you consider making the most cursory search, before reporting failure?"_

 _"I am your loyal servant, your grace."_

 _"And that would be the action of a loyal servant," Slaine really smiled this time, as Harklight did, "However, I would like you to truly seek out these Terrans, and do whatever we can for them. But they must not have any communication with the Princess. Dr Troyard and the security services must know nothing of this, assuming they haven't tracked down and killed them all already."_

-0-

Every morning, Inko broke the ice on the water bucket and washed her face. She didn't care about the cold anymore. Even in Zombietown, she just wanted to be clean.

It had been a gulag, a mining settlement, and then a ghost town of crumbling grey towers. And now the ghost town had risen from the grave as a teeming refugee camp. The old, the crippled, the deserters. They fled from Versian slavery, or conscription into a useless resistance, into the darkness at the end of the Earth.

It was something like the army, Inko had decided, or the student council. You must always have something to do. Chopping furniture up for burning. Working sorry patches of vegetables. Looting electrical goods from the villages. Or swilling vodka, like the three old women outside her window, until you passed out in the street and froze to death.

Zombietown, teeming with worms. Fat with winter layers, dirty. Crawling through every street, with dull, ravenous eyes. But as Inko wrapped a rough coat around her body, and stepped out into the snow, she knew her eyes were only dull. All she'd ever know of desire had died before Zombietown, in an instant of fire and blood.

-0-

A month after Novosibirisk, news of Castle Cruhteo's destruction had reached Russia, and a small fleet had been dispatched to retake Japan. Wondering if Shinawara would look like home, Inko had been there. They had landing in Niigata bay, and the white kataphract had been waiting for them.

 _"Attention, United Earth Forces. Flee, and save your lives. You will not pass me."_

Nothing could hit it. The kataphract danced through an artillery storm from the ships, cutting down Kats like some dreadful Hong-Kong thriller. It leapt across the water–within minutes, the first ship was burning.

In her Areion cockpit, Inko fought to stop the shaking. It didn't stop. Eyes blurred like a snowstorm. Stomach plunging, falling, from Siberian sky.

"Nao-kun. Need you. We. Need you. Need you now, or we're all–!"

He was dead. Weight on her side. Blood on her face, his face, gone–

Officer Yuki and Lt Marito had to drag her Kat back to the ship. They were almost back in Russia before she stopped screaming.

-0-

"Clear PTSD," Dr Souma had smiled comfortingly, as if it wasn't her fault, "I'll recommend immediate transfer to non-combat duties."

Months passed, with no news of a transfer, and a rumoured fresh offensive. Inko told Nina that if she was sent back into combat she would shoot herself.

"I put everyone in danger. I won't do that again. I can't watch them all die. And I can't see Nao-kun again, never again, not like that! I want to see him like he was! I want to go to where he is!"

She tore her best friend's heart to pieces, over a boy who might have liked her a bit. Nina held her on the bed as they cried together. Told her to pour it all out, but never ever leave.

Then Magbaredge came to Inko in secret. The only non-combat assignment the UFE would give her was Kaizuka Inaho's girlfriend.

"Your experience, your piloting scores; they won't let that go for anything else. You'd brief the top generals on how Kaizuka won his battles, but mainly you'd be PR. Living proof of our resolve to resist the evil Martians unto death. You'd have to tell a crowd of schoolkid conscripts what happened at Novosibirisk, every week."

Magbaredge had reported Inko and Nina's deaths in an accident. The girls had left Magadan, weeks before it was retaken by Vers. Novosibirisk was safe and under solid UFE control–but to deserters, that was hardly a comfort. The girls had to keep heading further north. Magbaredge had told them to call if they got into deep trouble, but they'd never called. Every Terran on earth was in deep trouble.

-0-

As Inko trudged through the frosty streets, she greeted two teenage girls with a truck full of building materials. Then a group of amputees with a football, in the few midday hours they could play outdoors. From a tower block, she heard a screaming woman's voice, a man's. A blow, sobbing, another blow. She walked on.

The ex-student council president largely spent her days organising. Zombietown had clinics, schools and markets, but never enough of anything. Someone had to decide who got what, in their district, and she was prepared to do it. Hulking Russians loaded down with weapons and beard listened to her. The grubby, quick-eyed children talked with her freely. Smiles slid from her heart into darkness and ice, but every blank, stoic face gave her strength. They could endure. They could survive this world. Trudging from work to work to bury herself in dreamless, sleepless bed.

In the evening, she went to visit Nina at the children's clinic; the grey building was as crowded as always. There were a couple of doctors; most of the volunteers were church workers, or ex-military. There had been no morphine for a week, and barely enough hydration fluid. Nina looked up from a comatose child with dysentery. Her hands were dirty, so she kissed Inko on the cheek.

Inko had taken a long time to ask her best friend about America. With East and West coasts wiped out in Heaven's Fall, she knew Nina and Calm had suffered.

"That's nothing to be proud of," the blonde had answered, "I just wanted, wanted, wanted. Pretty clothes, food to eat every day–everything Mom and Dad knew. I was really happy to come to Japan, but, if we couldn't stay there...I want to help everyone else, this time."

And she had. Inko helped in the clinic all she could, but Nina had spent days there at a time. With a skirt over her leggings, and her inseparable pink scrunchie, Nina had tended haemorrhaging casualties, and held hands with children who took days to die. She'd changed as much as Inko had; she never screamed at the sight of blood. A Russian boy had asked her to move in with him, but she'd promised not to leave Inko.

"Where's that new girl? Sonia." Inko asked, as they collected makeshift bedpans.

"No one's seen her. Who knows, maybe she wanted to go home?"

"Where did she live, before…?"

"No one knows."

Maybe she was home–nothing was certain, nothing was stable. Maybe mafiya or militia had killed her who knew why? Maybe her family had left to risk the attacks and universal conscription in such UFE-held cities as Novosibirisk; or take their chances in a Martian labour camp. Inko herself might have left Zombietown, to reach her parents. But neither she nor Nina had a clue where their parents were. They might not even have got out of Shinawara.

"Would you...go back to Illinois? If the war really ended?"

"It never felt like home, you know? We didn't have meals, or a real place to live." Nina's bunches brushed Inko's face, "I don't care where it is. One day, we'll make a home together."

As Nina went back to the girl with dysentery, Inko went sit to with Kenji. His family had fled Japan after the destruction of Tokyo. Flesh wounds and gangrene had kept his leg from completing the journey, and now he had dysentery too. His face was pinched and pale, but still a little cute when he smiled.

"Sis. Don't keep coming here. You'll get sick."

"Don't worry," Inko took his hand, "We should stick together."

"You're…really cute, you know, sis?"

"Oh, hush. I'll tell your Mum on you." Kenji's pinched face broke into his familiar, painful smile.

"Yeah. I really hope she's still out there, somewhere. And Dad, and Kana…you know, I really, really hope we smash the Martians one day, and take back Earth. Do you think we can, Sis?"

Inko knew her cue. She squeezed Kenji's hand, and began.

"There was one boy I knew, who fought the Martians. He was Japanese, like you...his parents weren't around, like ours. He was always quiet, and barely ever smiled, but that was only because he was thinking so much. And he was brave. Brave and caring. Whatever they faced, he did everything for his friends that could possibly be done. The Martians sent out a Kat with a flaming sword; that boy dropped it off a bridge and put out the flame. When we met a Kat with flying fists…the boy dodged behind it, so the Martian punched itself! I don't know if he was ever scared, but he never let it stop him fighting. Because there was a girl….his princess, who swore to protect. He kept his promise to the end…then he had to go away. But all his friends who loved him remember him, even when it hurts. So he won't ever really die."

"Sis…thanks." Pain spasmed across the boy's face. "..Sis? I think…you were that Princess, weren't you?"

Inko bent over his hand, almost to her knees. With a sob, she shook her head.

-0-

Some days, she really believed he would come back. He would stroll around the corner in his school blazer. Ask, why was she crying? with his calm, unmovable face, and then she would laugh again, and walk away at his side forever.

Oh, that would be enough. She couldn't ask for the old fantasies, where they were watching fireworks on a bridge, or he'd shot down a dozen Martians to save her. He'd had to be so strong, without his parents. He'd never let himself love a girl, like Inko had loved him–but for her he would try, and then he would take her in his arms, and try and try…

NO! Could Nao-kun love? Imagine? Dream? No, he was dead, and children were dying, in cold and filth. The miracles that filled his world were shrunk to the nothing that filled her life. Weighed on her side. The wonders of his life and brain had poured out over her suit…

She was filthy. Deserter. Unworthy. She was alone, and Kenji would die, because Nao-kun was dead…

When Nina got home she found Inko on the floor, buried in a blanket. She was moaning, so deep in her chest it could barely be heard.

"You're cold. If I'd slept in the clinic, you could've died."

The blonde guided her friend to her bed, started a fire in the grate, and then lay down with her. After she'd held her for an hour, she said, you're doing better. You'll keep getting better. But nothing got better. Everything slid away into ice and darkness. Nothing could uphold it, when world's last hope was gone.

-0-

Refugees flocked into Zombietown, soon after the UFE nuked the New Orleans Landing Castle. Everyone expected their cities to suffer the Martian's idea of justice. Some of the new refugees left within days; perhaps thinking it better to end in fire than in ice. Inko thought briefly of moving on, but where could they go?

In Russia, the UFE threw a dozen missiles and several suitcase nukes at Castle Orga. It survived with light damage. The Count himself proclaimed his survival in a special broadcast, along with vows of revenge both apocalyptic and apoplectic.

A week after the New Orleans bomb, the single Sky Carrier passed over Zombietown. Outside the clinic, Inko and Nina watched the speck fall–and then the Kataphract like some jointed insect crashed down in a blast of snow.

Nina ran into the clinic, lifted up two small children, and screamed for the others to run. For all the good it did, all of them did that could. Inko watched an old Russian woman falling to the snow in prayer. RPGs thumped to the ground before the Elysium, unexploded.

At the last, she wanted to fight. There was a way to kill it. Save everyone. Nao-kun had always found it, he had fought, he had died…and if only she had a Kataphract, she could die with him!

Inko could bear the cold. She ended life on her feet, frozen in a moment, screaming defiance at death.


	2. Lost Children

It was a week after Novosibirisk, when the casualties had been stabilised, Vers prisoners shunted off to POW camps, and the triumph announced over laser transmission by the Russian Premiere. Then the UFE forces rolled a lorry of vodka into an empty hanger, and laughter had a wild, manic edge; whether this victory would be ranked with Stalingrad, or the Little Big Horn, remained to be seen. But it was a true, hard-fought victory. The war to come only made the party more desperate.

A chorus of Russian officers had sung all the patriotic songs they knew, and all the tasteless American pop. Then they'd rolled with laughter to watch Mizusaki belting 'You raise me up' at the back of Magbaredge's head. There was dancing, and no one cared a bit about fraternization rules.

And in a corner, WO Kaizuka Yuki laid her head on a bench and bawled out her grief. Lt Marito sat beside her, sober and silent.

"Ugh…thought this stuff helped…?" She gazed at the empty bottle before her face; Marito grated that it should help her sleep. Sleep without nightmares was all drink gave him, after so many years. It didn't help with the hopeless frustration, or the guilt, anymore, but nothing else did.

Marito could see dozens of silent drinkers slumped about the walls, including a blonde mechanic named Craftman. Smothering the horrors they couldn't change. Burying the razor in their brains, that only grew duller with passing years.

"…hope the Princess got out. She was innocent. He liked her…oh, Nao-kun…!" Marito rested a hand on her shoulders as they quaked.

"He saved us, Kaizuka!"

No answer. No comfort. How could he think of saving her? He'd loved Humeray like a brother, for just six months–nothing in his suffering came close to hers.

How had he even kept himself alive? Oh, yes. He bent down again, shouted over the music;

"Kaizuka, the other kids will need us, tomorrow! Need you! We have to protect them."

"Yeah. Protect them. Kill the Martians, every one of them!" Yuki surged to her feet, almost flooring Marito with her exo-arm, "Serious. They killed my brother, parents, hurt you! Death to Mars!"

An equally drunk American soldier cheered, and pulled Yuki in for a kiss. Marito knocked him down, another American punched Marito, then Yuki sent two men flying into a full table, and things got rather chaotic.

-0-

-0-

"…whuzat? Where…?"

"This is your quarters, Officer. No, not the Deucalion, it's kaput remember? Underground." The door grated shut behind them. Marito shifted Yuki's weight against his shoulder, "Sleep on your side or front, I'll get a bucket–"

"Yo-you're…really fine man, Lieutenant."

"Yeah right–" As Marito tried to steer Yuki for her bed, he staggered against the wall. Her body was pressing onto his chest. Those dark, liquid eyes, staring up at him.

"Uh. You are. You were amazing back there. Say…long time since you've…been this close to a woman?"

It had. He was a washed-up drunk, she could've been his daughter! She deserved better, she was innocent…

She was gorgeous. From her first day at work, he'd had hopeless fantasies. Her loving smile, her black stockings, peeled away. Her fingers, pawing at his tie….he caught her hand.

"…Kaizuka, stop. This isn't you. You're the strong one–"

"I couldn't save him." Her head fell to his chest, "He could do anything, I just had to protect him! My little brother. What can I do now? Nothing. Worthless…please, just want to forget..."

No, Yuki. You said I was a fine soldier–the coward who hid in a bottle for fifteen years! That hope, that faith…dying in your eyes, before me. Like Humeray died, like your brother…I still can't save you, and it never hurt so much…

"No. You're not worthless. And we can't forget."

He held her hand. She wrapped her exo-arm round his chest and wouldn't let go. Both of them toppled onto her bed, where she was snoring within seconds.

Marito ruefully grinned. His fantasies hadn't exactly gone like this, but that was definitely for the best. He shifted Yuki around and nestled into her back like a spoon, before falling in exhausted sleep.

-0-

-0-

Marito snuck out early next morning, hoping against hope that Yuki might forget everything. Or maybe her hangover would buy him a few hours before the WO twisted his head off, or Magbaredge busted him down to private. However, it was only ten am when Yuki appeared at the door of his quarters, eyes bleary, but determined.

"Kaizuka. I'm sorry. Wait-what…?" She had marched past him, and started thrusting disordered clothes into cupboards.

"This room already stinks of whiskey," She held up a glass bottle."Thought you were quitting, Lieutenant?"

"Yeah, after our battle at Tanigishima last month. Just hadn't thrown it away yet." Yuki upended it into the sink, "Kaizuka…I might've needed that."

"You didn't need it last night."

"You were…had to watch out for you."

"Yes." She was staring up into his eyes again, "You saved me in Shinawara, too–"

"Can you stop that, Officer?" His cold voice stopped her dead, "You don't know what I've lost…what I've done. I failed everyone, everything, for fifteen years–"

"But it's all changed now! We're at war. Everything's fallen apart. We can't fail, not anymore! And I can't watch your past destroy you any longer! You are a fine soldier; we're here, we have to fight…we can't fight alone. Not anymore." Her eyes were liquid fire. But somehow– pleading? "Let me help you, Marito. Please."

"So…I let you devote yourself to fixing the sorry life I wrecked?"

"Yes. Or you could throw me out. Find another bottle. Give in…"

Tears welled in Yuki's eyes. Marito sighed; carefully put his arms around her. She clung to him like a child.

"Yuki…look, sit down. Dr Yagarai would be better, but you can talk to me. About your brother. Ought to act like your lieutenant, for once." Yuki didn't ask, did Lieutenants usually hold their junior officers' hands? She didn't let go, either.

She slowly told Marito how Nao-kun had shopped and cooked for them since he was ten, and woke her up for work on Tuesdays–almost every Tuesday, so she didn't get too carefree. He could've been a general, a Todai professor, maybe even a prince. She was proud of him.

"…every time he fought, it was hopeless. I told him…but every time he tried. Just like Dad, fifteen years ago…just like you, Marito."

"No, I stopped fighting years ago, Yuki. I ran and hid in a bottle–"

"Marito, if we're going to make this work, you need to shut up about how useless and sorry you are. That's a kind of hiding too."

Suffering was cold and vast in her eyes–the carefree young lady her brother had woken was gone. But her voice was determined. Full of the hope Marito knew he would die to protect, a hundred times.

We both lost our loved ones. We suffered so much together, so quickly, like a flashing sheet of flame. And you look to me for what I'm so afraid I can't give you….

-0-

-0-

The weeks after Novosibirisk were the last time Rayet had hope left in the world. Castle Cruhteo was somehow destroyed. With surrender of Castle Femianne, Far East Russia was retaken. The Vers offensive in China had stalled. In every soldier's eyes, there was an edgy triumph. Vers could be defeated, the nightmare could end in victory. Even for Rayet, with no home in the world and her father gone forever, the world would change. Hope might exist again.

The British airborne assault on the Stockholm Castle was a costly success, but after that, the Martians were prepared. The next three Castle assaults failed–as the expedition to reclaim Japan did. Rayet fought from her Areion as hard as she could, but the white Kat darted among the tower blocks like a demon. She could do nothing except come back alive.

Afterwards, she stood outside Inko's hospital ward for a long time. Nina finally walked out, rubbing her eyes.

"Has she recovered?"

"I don't know. She's quiet, now...Rayet-San, couldn't you try? I mean, even now the Duecalion's gone, I'm only driving forklifts–I don't know what to say to her! You, like, fight in a Kat, and you, um…"

"I dealt with my father's murder by strangling the Princess. It doesn't seem as if your friend would cope that way." In silence, Nina watched Rayet walk away down the corridor.

Of course, Nina had been Inko's best friend from first year high school. Rayet's father had never let her attend school; he said they learnt nothing but decadent rubbish and Terran lies. She might even start to sympathise with the merciless enemies of their nations, if she attended school with Terrans. Rayet had believed it all; her father had rarely said that he loved her, but she saw in his eyes, every day, that he would jump under a bus for her sake.

But now he was dead. Decadent pity for Terrans, treasonous hatred for Vers–they filled her up to eyeballs now, traitor that she was. All she had been, had been a lie…she could have hated her, father if she hadn't loved him more than her soul.

Vers nobles might distain escape pods and spacesuits, but Vers infiltrators learnt how to head for the hills before the other shoe dropped. It was certainly the first thing Wolfe Areash had taught his daughter, and Rayet could sense the changing mood at Novosibirisk. Outrage, at pure and simple unfairness. No alien movie ever ended like this. Hadn't they ever had a chance? What could they do, but tear apart any Martian their claws could reach?

Long before she might have been thrown in the stockade, Rayet had removed an Arctic survival suit from the stores, erasing the records of it, along with every trace of herself. Thrown a duffel bag over her shoulder, and headed for a gap in the perimeter fence.

"Where are you headed?" A voice behind her. She didn't turn.

"Somewhere I can fight."

"If the UFE won't let you fight, then fight them for it. You'll do more good here–"

"Do good? Me? Weren't you going to kill every last Martian, for your brother's sake, Miss Kaizuka?"

"Don't be absurd. You fought beside us. You're our comrade before anything else."

Rayet was ready to scoff. But in the dusk, Kaizuka Yuki's face and voice somehow reminded her of Kaizuka Inaho. His face, when he returned the gun that she had aimed at his Princess. Rayet she turned, and headed back to Novosibirisk, and the former crew of the Deucalion. However naïve they were, even now–they were the nearest thing to a family she had left.

-0-

-0-

Dr Soma Yagarai began Marito's counselling session with his usual pleasant smile. His friend and patient looked neater and better groomed than hitherto, but little happier.

"So, over four months now since spring arrived for Koichiro Marito. How is that going?"

"It's not like that, Doc."

"Indeed, it's almost like high school. She makes you breakfast and lunch; checks your laundry and work schedules every day. You go to fetch her when she can't get up in the morning."

"…I just hold her and let her cry, until she can face a world without her brother. That's all."

"Isn't that hard for you, Marito? You are still on the wagon, aren't you?"

"Since Tanigishima–when we all fought there, I couldn't even start the Areion. I knew I had to stop running, then, for everyone's sake. After that FUBAR attack on Niigata, when Amifumi lost it, and the nightmares had me by the throat…somehow I held together. But I had huge, pointless rows with Yuki around then. They were my stupid fault…Doc, d'you think I took my guilt out on her?"

"It happens, in all kinds of relationships. You made up, didn't you? And before Miss Klein and Miss Amifumi's…departure"

"Yeah…we really made up after that. Girls just left her a note. She was devastated. Would've gone after them…but she really wants to avenge her brother. The Martian girl Rayet needs her too, even Craftman..."

"Quite an amazing woman."

"Look Doc…I know, if her brother hadn't died, she'd never have given me a second chance. Sorry, glance. I swore I wouldn't take advantage of her, I'd blow my brains out first…but we're closer than we should be, and I can't..."

"Aren't you afraid she's using you? Smothering the pain of loss, as if you were a man-sized Scotch bottle?"

"…no. I wouldn't let her if she was. She's been good to me, put up with a ton of my..."

"Marito. This is going to sound weird, but it's just a theory. Miss Kaizuka was sole carer to her brother for most of their lives. I don't think she came to you for comfort, but for someone else to care for. Not that you were just 'someone' to her. I think she's always seen her father in you, who never came home from the war."

"Yagarai. You trying to make me feel worse for wanting to sleep with her? Some father–!"

"You knew there were problems, or you would have slept with her before. She's looking for you to protect her like a father, to be cared for like a brother, and be close to her as a lover. It's honestly not a wrong or even unhealthy start to a lovely relationship."

"Says the psychiatrist...you mean the brother-thing and father-thing balance out?"

"They might. I would work up to telling her about your nightmares; she needs to see the worst if you're serious. If you want to do something for her, try making her breakfast. I promise, I'll eat your practise attempts myself. By the by, is our gallant Captain still on board with your relationship?"

"Yeah. She said we've both been working better than ever. She's almost friendly, these days. Mizusaki even wished a long and happy future to Yuki and me in our New Years' cards."

"Lt Mizusaki aside...the Captain's warmer feelings may result from my showing her the video of your therapy sessions."

"That's illegal, isn't it?"

"True, if the Japanese Medical Association wasn't a smoking ruin, I could be in serious trouble. I thought–"

"–yeah, you were right. Thanks. I wanted to tell her about Humeray, but I never could've...I'll have to tell Yuki myself though. You didn't show her–?"

"Not a peek."

"Okay. You're...a really great guy, Doc. Don't know where I'd be without you."

"Lets not get too sentimental, Lieutenant..."

-0-

-0-

Nearly five months after Novosibirisk, the Vers dropped two Argyres north of Magadan, and rapidly advanced towards the captured Castle Femmianne. UFE orders were for a fighting retreat and evacuation by air, conserving their Kats for more significant defences. Some pilots fought longer than others.

"Clydesdale-11, get back!" Yuki bit her lip, fired again–incredibly, the sniper round blew out the Agyre's right elbow. "No! You got his attention! MOVE!"

"One more, Lieutenant! We can beat them, if we just try–!"

"KAIZUKA! No hero's death in action! We know what that means!"

Marito swung his Areion out into the street. He opened up on the Argyre; fire danced before his eyes. He had to save them, this time…

The Argyre staggered; another sniper round had hit its right side. Then it dashed away, on spindly silver legs, towards the second sniper team. All of them died under its active blade field, for daring to strike at their conquerors. Then the damaged machine fled. The lone Vers Kat attacking from the North East withdrew as well.

Yuki had run, without a second shot, as had Marito. Afterwards, they parked their Areions on an empty lot. She ran to him.

"I'm sorry, Lt Marito…"

"Don't die. Just don't die, Yuki…it's okay. Man, you got him! You were strong."

"And you were brave. Just like Shinawara...I guess we'll always have Shinawara?"

"Yeah. Here's looking at you, kid."

Yuki laughed. The carefree smile on her lips...the smile Marito hadn't seen since Novosibirisk.

"...Marito?"

"Yuki? Can I tell you, you look beautiful in that suit?"

She put her arms round his neck. He raised her face to his. She told him, later, he was the first man she'd ever kissed.

Within days, the unwounded Argyre attacked again, beside a new Kat, with a glowing shield and sword that shot plasma beams. The retreat this time was headlong.

Marito didn't find out until they were half-way back to Novosibirisk that Dr Yagarai Souma had been moonlighting at one of the last military hospitals to be evacuated before Vers ground troops arrived. He had been on a helicopter downed by an SAM.

-0-

-0-

"Psychosomatic medicine? Do you need a doctorate for that?"

Souma could barely make out the scruffy white beard and glasses of his interrogator, with his own glasses lost, and one eye swollen over. He managed a smile.

"You have the advantage of me, Dr Troyard. I'm afraid I've had too many demanding patients to read a single one of your papers." Dr Troyard smiled very briefly, and put his notes aside.

"You were on the Deucalion. I'm going to ask you one question, once only. Where are the rest of its former crew?"

"Ah. We saw Princess Asseylum's speech, of course…she really does love your son doesn't she? Congratulations…and she doesn't know he killed Kaizuka Inaho?" Troyard's gaze didn't flicker. Soma smiled again, "Well, I have been known to reveal my patients' confidential information, in exceptional circumstances…so I'm very glad to tell you, I have no idea."

Seizing his bound arms, two plain-clothes Versians pulled Dr Yagarai to his feet. One asked Dr Troyard, should they take him to the cellar?

"…no. He really doesn't know anything. Dispose of him the usual way."

The security men (later killed by a Terran bomb in Afghanistan) particularly remembered Dr Yagarai's face. Slaine's father expected to forget him, but didn't. At first he looked simply lost, unable to understand why his life was ending. But something buried in his eyes seemed to speak with the star-bright madness in Troyard's. It was an almost child-like hope.


	3. No rest for the wicked?

Just after the retreat from Magadan to Novosibirisk, Calm Craftman was removed from his friends' unit, for a 'top secret' assignment. It did nothing to break the glum silence of his mood since Inaho's death. Yuki reminisced that the old Calm would have blurted any secret within minutes.

It was also the time when Rayet made her first Martian friend. Petya's father had been another Vers sleeper agent, who'd vanished on a sabotage mission in the Ukraine. Drafted by the Russian UFE, Petya claimed to have informed Count Marylcian of Princess Asseylum's location within hours of her arrival at Novosibirisk.

"…only, the Princess and Duke Troyard deny that she was ever there at all. Can't let anyone know she shut down Castle Troyard–and they call us rats! I could've been a baron if things had gone a little different."

"No," Rayet stared at the blonde boy coolly, "You would probably–"

"–have been silenced; I know." He flashed her a wry grin, "Feels good to be alive, doesn't it?"

"Not really."

"But you live with it. You're incredibly strong, you know? When my dad vanished, I…" Face still, Rayet listened to everything he said.

Petya was in touch with dozens of Versian agents. Discarded across the world by their masters, they were cautiously banding together. There were plots to do everything from bombing UFE HQ to assassinating Slaine Troyard. Rayet actually helped Petya send explosives to Japan for the latter attempt. With no combat duties, it wasn't as if she hadn't the time.

He talked so freely with her; it repulsed and fascinated Rayet, all at once. She told him at once, she was on the UFEs side. Martians were her enemy.

"Well, my mother was from Smolensk, but…I found out what the UFE did to my father. They've lied to their people as much as the Martians; so I'm honestly on neither side. What I want is for this war to end."

"You didn't believe Princess Barbie-doll's speech then? That Vers will make peace in two months?" Rayet and Petya smiled, sharing the joke.

"Vers dominated in the war; they've nothing to gain by making peace, and the UFE know it. Vers needs to know the UFE are putting forces aside in secret, ready to counterattack without warning after the armistice is signed. Then they'd have to stop the lies, and start building a real peace. There are a few agents with me–do you want to join us, Rayet? I think it'd be the best tribute we could achieve for your father's memory."

One day, before it went too far, Rayet would have to tell Yuki about the Martian spy. It wasn't that he'd seduced her or anything. He was just the only boy who understood.

-0-

All over Earth, the Versians were spread thin. A fast, well-equipped team might extract dozens of prisoners from Magadan, and be back in Novosibirisk before they could react. Marito spent two nights solid writing the proposal, then Yuki went with to Magbaredge's office.

"Is this a joke, Lieutenant? Do you imagine I can approve this?"

"No, Ma'am. And no. Just had to try." Magbaredge didn't smile, but her eyes softened.

"I'll keep this report. Let's all remember the ones we could save, as well." She placed it carefully in her desk, "You'll have heard a lot of black propaganda about massacres, but generally the Martians have switched their policy to mass imprisonment, since the Princess reappeared. Dr Yagarai might have a better chance than us."

Yuki's body clenched like a fist, at the mention of her brother's first and final love. His face still as an unshaven cliff, Marito did not move.

"One more thing, Lieutenant," Magbaredge stared at him narrowly, "If Officer Kaizuka had been captured, would you have filed a similar proposal?"

"No, I'd have–"

"Wouldn't have done anything, Ma'am. Nothing stupid. I'd kill him if he did."

Yuki met Magbaredge's stare. It was wary now, as if estimating the weight a rope might bear.

"Carry on then."

They walked out, and away down the passage. Then Marito stopped. Drove his fist into the wall, and silently slumped against it.

His best friend. He couldn't save him. After all he'd done, not a thing to do. Still trapped with his dead in a sheet of flame.

"Marito! Kou-kun. We're going to be alright…"

Yuki sank beside him, head laid on his. Such a caring girl, so exposed and ready to break…he would have had to go back for her, alone. Souma was his best friend. But Kaizuka Yuki was the girl he had to save. And never would; it burned worse than the flames.

She was the girl he loved. So why couldn't she stop him thanking her, staggering away, and sitting down in his room, in front of a glass of whisky?

-0-

In the end, Rayet talked Petya into giving her the names of the Versian spies in Novosibirisk. Her position with the UFE was precarious enough, without revealing what she'd been up to without their knowledge. So she quietly went around and shot every name on the list. Unlike Petya, they had entered the base as refugees, so no one would even search for the bodies. That just left Petya himself.

"Just tell me why. Why couldn't we work together for peace, Rayet?" Corn blue eyes flickered from Rayet's gun around the room. Searching for a weapon?

"You planned to reveal UFE secrets to Vers. You'd put the lives of my friends in danger…"

"Weren't we friends, Rayet? I was alone. You helped me, you listened to me…why, if you knew it would end like this?"

Did you know, father? Saazbaum was always going to kill you. But it was all you could do, to kill a Princess, and die like a fool and a killer–like me.

Rayet buried Pitor in a snowdrift outside a service tunnel, and made everything appear as if he had deserted. When Yuki asked her what she had been doing, she said, nothing special. It was almost like having a mother. She could never have talked to Yuki as she'd talked to Pitor; but she could never have hazarded their bond by exposing the Versian spies she had befriended.

"Okay," For a moment, Yuki stared into space, "I…guess you wish you could say a lot to your father?"

"Nothing that would've done him good, I'm sure."

"But whatever you said, he was still your Dad? Rayet…we need to be there for each other, no matter what. And I need to talk to Lt Mario. Even if he hates me for it."

She got up, and left. Rayet remained in the canteen, eating slowly. Thinking of the Martians she had finally killed, and how little it had satisfied.

Her father had never got himself killed to give her a life like this. That satisfied, even as it hurt.

-0-

After a lot of shouting, all from Yuki, Marito got back on the wagon. He was sure they were still together, but there was a phantom of tension there; like the lurch before a rope snaps taunt. They spent far more time together, as if trying to replace Yagarai's therapy, but all their conversations drifted back towards Mars.

"…the Chinese are fighting harder than ever. I can't stop thinking, we should be there."

"It might be a month before there'll be enough for everyone. Make peace with the Martians, wait for them to relax, then counterattack with nukes. They're just holding us in reserve for that. It could be years." Facing Yuki, Marito swallowed the mess hall's dry corned beef.

"No. Not another war, for another round of children…the Martians would have found some excuse to crush us long before that, anyway. I just want it all to end."

"Yuki…" Awkwardly, Marito put his hand around hers. "…don't say that. It always ends, but right now…we can live."

"Can we? Can we do anything? Take out one more Landing Castle…murder that slimy gigolo who shot my brother? I couldn't believe it when the Princess shacked up with him! 'We understand your pain…peace in three months…' And she still lets them blame us for trying to kill her! She's the worst of them all."

"Maybe she doesn't know Troyard shot your brother." Marito knew better than to suggest that Asseylum's loyalty to Vers might trump a teenaged crush.

"Then…couldn't we tell her?"

"What, just walk into the palace…?"

"Seriously!" Yuki voice started small, then grew in enthusiasm, "Rayet's good with computers; we could rig up a pirate broadcast. Troyard would get the chop, Vers would be thrown into chaos, and they'd get what they'd deserve–"

"–or you'd just break up a rather insipid marriage, get the one Versian leader who wants peace with Earth locked up, and make Slaine Troyard the hero who shot Earth's best pilot. Or she simply wouldn't believe you."

Commander Magbaredge dropped her food tray down beside Marito, and fell to without waiting for a reply. Yuki spluttered, saluted, and protested that the bullet in her brother hadn't matched Saazbaum's gun.

"–the UFE covered it up, as usual, but Rayet found the report! I want them to know the truth about my brother, commander–!"

"Your brother didn't waste his energy on fantasies, Kaizuka, even when it started raining Martians. The bullets don't matter. The Princess doesn't matter now. Whether it ends this war or not, all we can do is fight to survive.

Yuki turned to Marito. He sighed.

"The Martians have shown the will to wipe out every one of us. We can never negotiate. Never surrender. Right, Yuki?"

She pulled away from his hand. Hadn't she wanted to fight? Why couldn't they say what they meant anymore?

They three of them finished their meal in silence.

-0-

Four weeks after the armistice between Vers and the UFE, the Calgary Landing Castle was taken out with a suitcase nuke. The Near East and Central Russian theatres went red-hot; sharp, focused attacks on the Vers broke out worldwide. Many countries and regions that had sworn allegiance to Vers threw off the pretence and threw out hidden reserves of Aerions. Much of the UFE's fury was spent on the countries that didn't. Quislings were softer targets than Versians, after all.

Marito and Yuki still saw a lot of blue uniforms with their hands up, for the first precious month. Assured of total superiority, many Vers grunts were shocked into surrender the minute things looked bad. There were enough isolated camps and bases to hit one, and then leg it, before Vers Kats arrived. There was a meteor strike in North America, but the nuclear threat kept most of the Counts from any offensive.

They released hundreds of pinched civilians from behind Versian fences. None of them had heard of a kind Japanese doctor with glasses, but Marito could still give Yuki a real smile every morning. She would rest on him, and they would have a moment of satisfaction, beyond words. When news broke that a force of mobile artillery and Kats had destroyed the Scorching Solis in New Orleans, it was the happiest evening they ever shared.

Then there were more meteor strikes; Pittsburgh, Detroit, Jordan, China. The Octantis, the Sirenum, the Electris and the Tharsis rolled over first South America, then the Near East. And Rayet disappeared, a week before Count Orga's attack on Novosibirsk was turned back by Martian Kataphracts. Yuki and Marito watched the broadcast together.

"Count Saazbaum, the principal advisor and military commander of the Versian Emperor, has requested asylum from the UFE, having been a prisoner of war since his defeat in the battle of Novosibirsk. His Kataphract 'Dioscuria' has been fully repaired by Terran engineers. The Count has given his word to help defend Earth against the Versian invaders his honour and conscience no longer permit him to lead. Several nobles have already joined Saazbaum in armed exile. Vicious purges of the Versian leadership by Duke Troyard should ensure that more follow, and that relations between Vers and Terra assume a more stable character than hitherto…"

"This is it, then." Marito leaned back and scowled, "We're desperate enough to turn to the man who ordered Earthfall. Killed the Princess."

"That means…he killed Rayet's father?" Yuki's face was pale with horror, "Why didn't I kill him when I had the chance…?"

-0-

It was no one's fault but hers. Yuki had been better than a mother. Before they went off the rails together, Inko and Nina had been perfect friends. But she was a murderer; she didn't have a place with them. The UFE would never let her fight; she'd stayed in her room every day, hidden from accusing eyes. She was an invader of Earth, consumed with hate for her own people; in the entire solar system, there was no place for her. Until Petya had shown her proof that Saazbaum was alive, in UFE prison. She had hacked computers, discovered that Saazbaum would pilot the Dioscuria against Vers, and then she had known what she had to do.

Even through earplugs, the bomb-blast left her numb. She was still up, moving towards the hanger, into the smoke and cordite. Guards in green took shaky aim at her; she cut them down with the sub-machine gun in her hands. Her eyes fixed on a red coat, a body on its face–she had to confirm his death, before fresh guards came up and shot her to paste.

More bodies in engineer blue lay in the Dioscuria's shadow; probably some of the best mechanics left in Siberia. There was a blonde boy, no older than Petya…than Rayet. He rolled over, with a groan, and Rayet stopped dead.

It was Inaho's friend. The American boy. Bleeding and stunned; but he would live. Saazbaum was before her, the demon that had broken her life, and other lives beyond counting. She looked back–

He was on his back, smiling up at her. Aiming a pistol at her left eye…

Inaho Kaizuka was Rayet's last thought. He had aimed a gun at her, when she was ready to die–then he had given her the gun, spoken as if she was simply a human, and free. His sister had been just the same. Could it have been different? Could a Martian ever be free...? But there would never be an answer.

-0-

"…that's it. Sorry I couldn't tell you about the Dioscuria. They wouldn't let me put a bomb in it. Every time I saw Saazbaum, I told him 'my best friend kicked the snot out of you'; he just laughed and said 'if only he'd been born Versian'…I hope him and prince charming blow each other to bits. Sorry."

Blonde head buried in plasters, Calm left Yuki and Marito alone. She cried into his chest, like the drunken night almost one year past.

On the Dioscuria's second sally, five Vers Kats had dropped down around Novosibirsk. It had been expected, and much of the garrison had already dispersed into the field. The Versian forces–Slaine Troyard's forces–could have waited for the Dioscuria to head a drive on Moscow, or attacked them first; they chose the latter. It was the night before the battle, camped in a nameless Siberian gully, when Marito asked Kaizuka Yuki to elope with him.

"You mean…desert?"

They were sitting under the warm engines of an Aerion, kept running to stop in from freezing up. Yuki saw nothing but frozen darkness in any direction. Marito took her hand.

"I mean, this is my choice, Yuki. I've fought long enough…you know I'm not a coward. Even with the flashbacks, the booze…I cannot let you die."

"Are we going to die, then?"

"We're going to lose. Even with the Versian traitors…since your brother died, we always lose."

"But we'll never stop fighting. For Nao-kun's sake–"

"Yuki, please!" His grip on her hand went tight, "Can't we just live? Can't I just save you? Am I just a useless drunk–!"

"No. And no."

Yuki kissed him on the mouth. Their lips were chapped raw, but it burnt brighter in Marito's heart than any whiskey. And like whiskey, he could only surrender…

No. He broke away.

"I'm serious, Yuki. Leave with me."

She wouldn't leave. It spiralled into a bitter row, until Yuki hissed that he had never respected her, and stormed off to her tent. Even hunched against the cold, she looked stronger than iron or death. Marito watched her leave, for the last time. Then he stumbled to his bed, dying for a whiskey.

-0-

"…Sir Harklight! Um, I'm afraid her Highness has just had an urgent call, and isn't available right now."

"At two in the morning, Ma'am?" The hologram of Eddelrittuo fidgeted shyly. "Though I should hardly talk. Forgive me."

After his master had woken from a nightmare, hours before the decisive battle of his career, Sir Harklight had thought of calling the Princess to procure some moral support. Since that didn't seem possible, he made to end the call.

"One moment, please! Her Highness asked me today–had you found anything of her friends on Earth?"

After some time, Harklight answered, no. He had drafted a report on the excesses of the Security Services under Dr Troyard's control; he would present it to his grace when the present crisis was over, even if it cost him his life. That was all the results of his investigation that he felt could be profitably shared.

"Oh." The Princess's little handmaid paused, then visibly screwed up her courage, "C-congratulations on your ennoblement! I always thought you were too kind and polite to be a commoner, so you certainly deserve it! And…good hunting, in the battle tomorrow. I'll pray for your safety."

The knight smiled at her flushed, earnest face, and thought of his little brothers and sister on Mars. If they received a place on the colony ships, what would they think to see a flower or a tree?

"Thank you, Ma'am."

Sir Harklight ended the call, laid back on his stateroom bed in Castle Orga, and slept the sleep of the just.


	4. The end of the dream

Fighting the Versians was a nightmare that never changed. You planned, and tried and bled, perhaps you beat them here and there, but they always won. Killed and killed, but never conquered, so the battles for survival never ended.

In what transpired to be the last open battle of the war, the UFE had planned to predict the invisible Scandia's position, cripple it, and ambush the Electris while its shield was down. The first part worked. Marito was first to attack the Electris, and first to flee; he could do nothing but survive. Burning metal filled his nostrils as he ran.

Yuki was somewhere on the other side of the field, buried with two platoons under a wave of Ortygias. As Marito pounded through the snow, his face was burning. The flames that never died hemmed him in; he shouted Yuki's name, as an Ortygia burst into his vision.

He took down four of them, but they were endless. In the end, he barely ejected before a gauntlet smashed his Kat in half.

Shortly afterwards, Slaine Troyard's Tharsis defeated Saazbaum's Dioscuria, and the final battle was lost. Marito fled through snow and rocks, until he found a drift of bodies in green. He tore a hip-flask from an old man's corpse, poured the stinging vodka down his throat, and waited to die by fire or ice.

When a squad of Versians found him, his limbs were almost immovable; he told them he was finished, they should kill him. But a weary drubbing with boots and rifle butts finally brought him to his feet.

-0-

With several other UFE survivors, Marito was herded to a nearby railway, and told that a Sky Carrier would take them all to prison in half-an-hour. Two Martians were left to watch the miserably frostbitten prisoners; one was a sergeant as old as Marito, the other a private who looked 19. As he clenched his body around the tiny core of heat, Marito had no way to escape their conversation.

"–said they captured that traitor Saazbaum alive."

"Well, he's probably dead by now then. And Duke Troyard's probably flying home already, to a nice warm bed full of Princess."

"…surely they're not married yet, Sir?"

"Terrans don't care about that, you know? World's so fertile, all they have to do to survive is breed like monkeys."

"Yeah, but this is Duke Troyard, Sir! He's been at the forefront of every battle…he deserves something like that."

"Hmph. Another romantic..." The sergeant grumbled a bit, then took a photo from his pocket. "This is from seventeen years ago. Just before the hypergate blew."

"Your family were on Vers, when we were stranded in orbit? Sarge…"

"Told her to get a divorce, but she never did listen. Our girl should be eighteen by now. Last radio message she could afford, five months ago…she said her dearest wish was to come to Terra with the colonisation fleet, and serve Prince Troyard, with all her heart and strength. If I can see my little girl again…I'll do as much and more for Duke Troyard, Terran though he is."

"Yes, sir, he must be the greatest leader Vers has! Excepting his Majesty, of course. My wife–she's still at Castle Rafia, in Africa–she told me she'd like nothing more than to serve under Duke Troyard! Um, I mean…"

Both Martians burst out laughing at the poor choice of words, and concluded that Duke Troyard certainly was a great man. A little later, the aircraft arrived. Both men herded their prisoners on, apart from one man, unmoved by any amount of kicking, who they finally shot. Shivering with cold, the young Versian spat on him, and hurried into the Carrier.

In his later career, Marito would kill a lot of Versian soldiers. Every time he considered that they were just soldiers and humans like him, he would remember that conversation. They were ordinary humans. And they still needed killing.

-0-

All that kept Marito moving was the hope of seeing Yuki again. He was cold, starving, his world had lost a war–no Versian particularly tortured him in prison, but imagining what they might be doing to Yuki was torture enough. He would see her, even if she was crippled, broken in her strength…he would pay back those smug animals for all of it.

The Versians weren't twenty foot tall and made of metal. They were humans; arrogant, vicious and soft. It was the weeks of Versian faces forced before his eyes pushed Marito from hating himself to loathing them. Souma was dead, Kaizuka Inaho was dead, Yuki was gone. Only the animals were left.

"Save you. I tried, Yuki. I tried, I never stopped…you can hate me, spit on me, just be safe, safe and free…"

In his nightmares, she was trapped in the burning tank. He was pumping bullets into her beautiful face, but the screaming wouldn't stop. His cellmates grew gaunt as ghosts with lack of sleep, but they didn't speak to him; he barely moved from the corner of their increasingly odorous cell. There was only one person he would speak with, if he to wait years…but their talk still fell on his ears like acid.

"…yes, Troyard killed Saazbaum. Tied him up and shot him in the face. And they say he killed another woman for cursing him…something about her brother…"

He didn't make a sound. It was weeks before he believed it, but the night when he did, he howled like a dog. Blood dripped from his fists, and every eye on him was contempt. He was a dog, not a man, with nothing left to protect.

-0-

The Versian official gave Marito a choice between relocation to a labour camp, or swearing loyalty to Mars for a place in a fenced city. In the latter, he would have lighter duties, reasonable food supplies and a chance to work for full Vers citizenship. In the former, he might starve to death within months.

Marito spat in his face. The official didn't even hit him; he was evidently too used to such things to bother.

The labour camp in Japan was indeed short of food, but there were no real duties; the Martians literally had more prisoners than they knew what to do with. Most of the guards were Terran quislings, with no interest in brutalising their charges. Some former soldiers told Marito they were planning an uprising. But his only answer was to ask of them what Humeray had asked of him. That was all he had to say, to the guards, the Versians, and the prisoners. He was trapped. He was in agony. They needed to kill him.

Naturally, the camp had stills in the camp. Marito drank enough homebrew to feel dead, but somehow life returned to him with every sunrise. It was fire on his eyes. Pounding in his head like bullets. Sick, silent, filthy, like the Terran dog he was, but it was never enough. For Humeray, Souma, Inaho for Yuki…never enough pain for all the ones he should have died for.

-0-

"We're staying here. Sorry."

Calm stared at Yotaro for a long time. The boy with glasses didn't shift his gaze.

"So, the Martians have won?"

"Hadn't you noticed?" Finally, the gaze broke, "The war is over. Fighting to the death sounds noble enough, but all it means is death. I know you want to avenge Okisuke and Inaho, but…"

"–but I can't do that by blowing up a truck of Martians, I know. Only driving every one of them off Earth would be enough." Calm gave a shadow of his old grin, "But people are still dying. Starving in the camps, purged as 'terrorists'–we can save some of them. And I want to find Amifumi. Wherever she is…that's the best thing I could do for Inaho's memory. Don't you want to find Nina?"

"If…she was still alive…but I can't believe she is. And Kisaki's parents are here in Japan…"

"Give him my regards," A door had closed in Calm's eyes, but he still smiled.

"Give mine to Shigo-San, Calm. Take care of yourself."

"Right back at you."

The American boy vanished into the shadows. Yotaro walked back to his family home, through the throng of shanty towns and building sites that had emerged from the fenced off ruins of Tokyo.

-0-

"Hello, Lieutenant."

Marito's eyes focused on the unmoving face of Karou Mizusaki. Even in ragged civvies, she had a certain neatness. Conversely, his beard was tangled and damp.

"Mizusaki. Got a date yet?"

"The fraternisation laws exist for a reason, Lieutenant." Now her nose wrinkled in distaste, "The commander…needs you. Our war isn't over yet."

"Kill me." He seized her wrist, with mad light in his bloodshot eyes, "I'll tell the Martians why you're here, unless you kill me now–"

"–or you'll let another comrade die?" Marito snarled, and went quiet, "The commander sent me for you; do you understand? I would lie down ahead of a Nilokeras for her, but she sent me to bring you back."

"Haven't I fought enough? Haven't I let enough comrades die? They said Yuki…"

"Yes, she died at Novosibirsk. Troyard killed her himself. I'm sorry. But innocent people like her will die all over the world, as long as the Versians rule Earth; the commander means to save every one she can. Would it be enough punishment just to die, Lieutenant? If we fight on, against the Vers, we'll have to become the most vicious, hateful terrorists in history. But we might just save more of our own people than we kill of theirs. That's what Commander Magbaredge told me to tell you." Marito snorted and looked away, "As for Officer Kaizuka, she asked for us to give you this."

Marito stared at the foot locker in Mizusaki's hand. There was a note tied to it.

 _For Marito Kouchiro, in the event of my death._

 _Kou-kun. I'm sorry. I know what you're feeling now. I know it's no use to say you couldn't have saved me; I will never stop wishing to save you, whether it's possible or not. All I can give you is all I have. All I can tell you is to save yourself. Love yourself. I will love you forever, whatever you do._

"I couldn't save her."

"Yet she left you this."

The locker had more of Inaho's possessions than Yuki's. A broken tablet. A notebook of recipes. A few paperback novels that had to be Yuki's. And a white pendant, bearing a cross. Marito was still staring at it as Mizusaki stated that she'd be around, and moved away.

It was funny. For her brother, Yuki had fought to the end of her life; but when Marito thought of her, he could only think of peace. That had been what she fought for. What she had won for him. In sixteen years, the only peace he had known was in her.

"Thank you, Yuki. Thank you…"

 _It's alright, Kou-kun. I forgive you. I love you._

-0-

Days later, an extra food ration was given, for all inmates who turned out to watch the royal wedding on portable hologram. Most of the camp turned out. Marito turned out. He watched Slaine Troyard sweep Princess Asseylum off her feet, before 'kiss the bride' had even finished. He watched the boy burst into tears of happiness during his speech, as his beautiful bride clung to him, and the assembled Versian nobility burst into applause.

Something was burning inside him. A gun was in his hand. His dark-haired angel was at his side…where he could never touch her again.

"…he killed you, Yuki. Killed your brother. Not right. Make it right. Show him justice."

"…you might want to talk to her in your head, Lieutenant." Mizusaki was at his elbow. Marito glared at her, then shifted his feet.

"Reckon I'm crazy enough already. Reckon I'll need crazy. And…we were barely together a year, Mizusaki. Over before we knew it…so much I never managed to tell her. Almost our whole relationship is going to be this."

 _Yes, Marito. It's okay. I'll always be with you…_

-0-

In two years, the remaining crew of the Deucalion became the core of virtually the most dangerous, long-lasting terrorist group on a planet thick with them as flies on a corpse. Thanks to Yuki's ghost, Magbaredge's persistence and periodic alcoholic collapses, Marito survived. He heard younger recruits call him a hero; a legend who had killed more Versians in more extraordinary bombings and shootings than any other Terran alive. Marito doubted he was that special; he just thought of Yuki's face, after her brother was killed, and Troyard's face at his wedding. Then he just did what his feelings told him was right. Shambling through a nightmare like Frankenstein's tormented monster. They'd rescued a lot of civilians from purges and prison camps, but that was Magbaredge's speciality. However much he hurt the Versians was never enough.

The attack on the royal couple's new palace on Tenerife was his plan. It was a symbol of Versian power, built with Versian construction Kats and Terran slaves. If they saw Asseylum they would kill her; for three years, she had been the enemy. He couldn't have said if the mission had always been a pretext for the idea that had originally been Yuki's. He could never have seriously presented it, but it was always at the back of his mind.

It took months to plan. When the main Terran force attacked the palace, Asseylum and her bodyguard would flee to a hidden airfield. Marito's squad would ambush them; that was the plan. When the shooting was over, Marito found himself with two bullets in his arm, and his comrades scattered among the trees, and the Versian dead.

It was just pain. All he deserved. How many could he kill, before they shot him…?

"Don't shoot! I order you not to shoot! I…"

The Empress was moving towards him, eyes wide. Young and beautiful as ever; but three years had taken their toll and brought their burdens. The loneliness of a prisoner, the empty ghost of unease. Doubtless he looked different too…Marito smiled, and put down his rifle.

"Lieutenant Marito." Of course she remembered his name, though he was colonel now, "I'm sorry, I…I don't know how it came to this. Please, tell me what I can do…"

Marito squeezed his pendanr, and told her. What her husband had done, what she had to do. Then she screamed at him to go, and he ran, bleeding, through the forest until he reached the coast, stole a motorboard, and went. Like the Ancient Mariner, it seemed he was condemned to survive.

-0-

Nearly a decade after Earthfall, the Landing Castles lifted off from Earth's surface for the last time. Most of the survivors were too weary for parades and jubilant celebrations; The Deucalion crew were typical in walked down to the nearest Whiskey-Shelf, and ordering four glasses of the best rotgut available.

"To the Kaizukas. To peace."

Stoic as ever, Magbaredge raised her glass. Marito, Calm and Mizusaki struck theirs together, drained them, and ordered another four.

"What…are you going to do now, Craftman?" Marito stared at him unsteadily. It had been two years since he executed Emperor Slaine Vers Allusia Troyard, but his fire still hadn't come back.

"Teach, maybe. Like you did, Colonel." A young man who had lost parents and friends to a decade of war, Calm's smile was carefree no more, but stronger than ever. Magbaredge nodded her approval. She herself was going into politics; Mizusaki was going with her.

"Yeah. He said maybe I could teach again, you know? Troyard did. I've taught enough kids to kill Versians. Maybe teach them another way to live…."

"Colonel…maybe someone could teach you, and them, another way. We'll talk about it next week.

With nothing to do in peace but drink, Marito knew Calm was right. This was it; the young people would pack him away like an embarrassing grandad. Like the crazy old drunk he was.

But it was all right. He had nothing to do but sit and listen for her voice. He hadn't saved a single comrade, but he had fought to the end. Now he could rest, and dream of the day he would see her again.

The drinks arrived. On an Earth at peace, they all stared at their drinks, and drank them.


End file.
